Gawker: Rob Ford crack tape ‘gone’; Ford: I will survive

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford says he will “absolutely” survive the crack video scandal that has rocked City Hall to its foundation and, if the revelation that the recording itself is “gone” is accurate, that is more than likely correct.

That’s right, nearly a month after U.S. news site Gawker reported that it had viewed a cell phone recording of Ford smoking a crack pipe, their source claims the video is gone.

Gawker and the Toronto Star both report they were contacted by an intermediary who put them in contact with a reputed drug dealer who possessed the video in question. Both organizations reported viewing the video and seeing an inebriated Ford smoking from a crack pipe and making off-colour comments.

Both say the person tried to sell the video for “six figures.” Gawker couldn’t come up with the money and, fearing the news had reached Ford, went public. They then launched a crowdsourced funding campaign that raised more than $200,000, but the video’s possessor had disappeared.

[ Related: Rob Ford crack story: Is seeing believing? ]

Gawker now writes their intermediary has spoken to the man with the video, who said “It is gone, leave me alone.”

Editor John Cook writes that the intense pressure from the fallout forced the man to the ground and media reports that outlined his Somali heritage and the general area of where the video was taken and being held scared them further. But what really clammed him up, Cook says he was told, was leaders of Toronto’s Somali community who support Ford and wanted the whole thing to go away.

You have to be skeptical about the last suggestion, and indeed even Cook questions how pressure from the community would outweigh a $200,000 payday. But media scrutiny and having the video tied to a murder investigation could give any novice embezzler the chills.

In what could be Gawker’s final chapter in the Ford scandal, Cook writes:

This revelation will bring some to ask “Where did it go?” Or “Who has it?” Others will also ask “Did it ever really exist?” And that is where the full extent of the missing recording will be felt. Despite two news organizations independently corroborating the existence of the video and Ford’s staff falling to ruins in the wake, he will survive in his role as mayor.

[ More Brew: Mayor Rob Ford hires new staff, but where are his friends? ]

Ford told the Toronto Sun that he will “absolutely” survive the crack video scandal and that the controversy will eventually fade away.

He has been doing his part to make it so. Set aside reports that Ford told his staff he knew where the video was being held and other reports that close friend and staffer David Price was questioned by police after asking Ford’s former chief of staff what he should do if he knew where to find the video.

Ford has made it a habit to make announcements about claimed accomplishments, even re-announcing old ones, and pretending he can’t hear questions about the controversy. He continually states “everything is find” and attacks the media on his radio program, the audio bible of Ford Nation.

His core support base has not waned amid the controversy and, unless the video is ever seen, some of those who were on the fence about the mayor’s indiscretions will fall back onto his side. And he will survive.

Hell, considering he made the whole story out to be a smear job by the media, he will likely even add an extra layer to his flak jacket. He could come out of this entirely bullet proof.

The Toronto Star has said there are multiple copies of the video and that they are still working to obtain one. If it doesn’t come out soon, the mayor will become titanium.